Xie Chong instinctively closed his eyes.
He stopped breathing.
He didn’t dare to breathe.
Mu Wen held his face in her hands. He felt her clumsily bite his lips.
In that instant, it felt as if the whole world came crashing down.
His arms finally came down and he grabbed her shoulders. His intention was to push her away, but she wrapped her arms around his neck first.
He did not respond to her.
She looked so disappointed.
She opened her eyes slightly and stared at him.
She had never looked at him from such a close distance, and she had never touched his face before.
The autumn wind was cold, yet his face was burning hot.
Xie Chong opened his eyes just a little and met Mu Wen’s misty eyes.
Was she crying?
He was confused and wanted to ask her.
But she suddenly leaned toward him again.
Mu Wen didn’t want to think about anything anymore.
She only wanted to be reckless and take what she wanted from Xie Chong.
She clearly realized that her feelings for him had already reached a point she could no longer control.
Mu Wen didn’t know how to kiss.
She thought kissing meant biting.
So she clumsily pressed her lips against his and refused to let him move away, tightening her arms around his neck.
Xie Chong grabbed her wrists with both hands and tried to loosen her arms.
He knew he must have used a lot of force.
There was even anger in his strength.
But Mu Wen was unbelievably strong.
She was the strongest woman he had ever met, stronger than almost every man he knew.
That day, he did not realize how subjective that thought was.
“Mu…”
He was about to stop her, but that gave her another chance to move closer.
For a brief moment, their lips met again, and everything seemed to stop.
Their hurried breathing stopped.
The struggle and resistance stopped.
Only a sharp, unfamiliar sensation spread quickly through their bodies.
Mu Wen almost immediately understood what this kind of closeness felt like.
Still drunk and completely unwilling to regret anything, she bravely moved closer to him.
Xie Chong tried to pull away.
He kept retreating until his back hit the old tree beside the road.
There was nowhere left for him to go.
Mu Wen seemed to be crying.
She was crying as she held onto him, looking unbearably pitiful.
At some point, Xie Chong’s arms had wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer.
It was as if he had become drunk too.
He blamed everything on Mu Wen.
He hadn’t wanted this to happen.
Yet he held her tightly and responded to her.
He didn’t know what he was supposed to do, so he simply followed her lead.
One hand rested behind her head, keeping her close.
His body was warm, and that warmth surrounded her.
Mu Wen suddenly remembered the dark corner of the school track, where she had once seen two people holding each other closely.
What was happening now didn’t seem much different.
She was genuinely happy because she had finally gotten close to Xie Chong.
Her “handsome man” had soft lips and clean, warm breath.
Even though he had tried to pull away, he had done it gently.
He was a kind person.
He hadn’t harshly pushed her away.
Mu Wen’s drunkenness seemed to disappear by half because her mind was completely filled with what had just happened.
She knew that even ten or twenty years from now, perhaps until the end of her life, she would still remember her first kiss.
But her body seemed completely drunk.
She had no strength left.
In the end, she could only lean completely against Xie Chong and cling to him.
Xie Chong was filled with an indescribable anger.
He kept taking deep breaths.
After a long while, he held her shoulders and gently pushed her away.
“Is your roommate home? I’ll take you to your door.”
Mu Wen shook her head and mumbled,
“Not home… not home…”
Her mind seemed starved of oxygen.
She could barely keep her eyes open.
She fell into a heavy sleep in Xie Chong’s car.
Later, she vaguely felt Xie Chong holding her with one arm while carrying her heavy backpack with the other.
She felt him lean her against the door of her apartment.
Then he lowered his head and searched through her backpack for her keys.
She heard him trying the keys one by one.
He got the right one on the third try.
The lock clicked.
He opened the door and walked inside with her.
Xie Chong helped Mu Wen into her home.
The room was completely dark.
There was a faint floral scent in the air.
The window was probably still open because a cool breeze was blowing through the room.
He reached around for the light switch.
Mu Wen tried to help him find it.
But she was actually making things harder.
Her arms were too heavy to lift, and their weight made his wrist ache.
“Don’t move!”
Xie Chong shouted.
He held both her hands down with one hand and finally managed to turn on the light.
The first thing he saw was a small, clean living room.
There was a small dining table.
On it sat a glass vase with a single peony in full bloom.
Some documents were scattered across the table, but Xie Chong had no time to look at them.
He kicked off his shoes, then stepped on the back of Mu Wen’s shoes to help her take them off.
He guided her into the bedroom.
Then he turned on the bedroom light.
There were two small, clean beds separated by a narrow, long table.
Books, little decorations, and a flower vase were arranged on the table.
Xie Chong also saw the little money-guarding creature piggy bank he had given Mu Wen.
He guessed that Mu Wen slept on the bed near the window because there was a copy of Towards a New Architecture beside the pillow.
“Is this the bed by the window?”
He asked her.
Mu Wen didn’t answer.
But she climbed onto that bed.
Xie Chong noticed the cute little cat patterns on her socks.
They matched the small floral countryside-style bedsheets perfectly.
There were several small flowerpots on her windowsill.
Some flowers were blooming, while others had grown thick with leaves.
Whenever the wind blew, the flowers swayed gently.
Mu Wen lay down and fell asleep peacefully.
Her cheeks were red, and her eyelids were slightly swollen.
She really had been crying.
This was the first time in Xie Chong’s life that he had gone alone into a woman’s home.
It was a warm, clean home with almost no secrets.
He closed the window for Mu Wen and pulled the curtains shut, leaving a small gap between them.
He thought that if something happened to her because she had drunk too much, or if she suddenly died at home, someone outside could see through that gap and discover her before anything happened to her.
Just then, her phone rang inside her backpack.
Mu Wen heard it and slowly woke up.
Even while drunk, she was worried that it might be a client calling.
She mumbled that she needed to answer it.
She was about to roll off the bed when Xie Chong quickly grabbed her and pushed her back.
He searched through her bag for the phone.
He found a red-and-white 5300.
He remembered her saying that she hadn’t contacted him because she had lost her phone.
He had originally decided not to question her about it because he didn’t think losing her phone was a convincing explanation.
But seeing the phone now only made him more certain that she had been brushing him off.
Xie Chong couldn’t understand Mu Wen.
Sometimes she was so genuine.
Other times, she seemed to forget him completely.
He thought they had become friends.
He had already decided to offer her his sincere friendship and become a very good friend to her.
Yet she didn’t seem to care much about him.
That was fine.
He wouldn’t hold it against her.
But then she had kissed him.
It seemed that simply being friends wasn’t what she wanted.
Xie Chong glanced at the phone.
The caller ID said, “Mom.”
Mu Wen clearly couldn’t answer in her condition.
If her mother heard her like this, she would worry.
So Xie Chong hung up for her.
Then he opened her messages and replied:
I’m working overtime. I’ll call you tomorrow!
He copied Mu Wen’s usual tone and sent the message.
Then he placed the phone beside her pillow.
He didn’t look at anything else on her phone.
He had originally planned to leave immediately.
But he was still worried something might happen to her.
So he left the bedroom door half open and went to sit in her little living room.
Only then did he clearly see what was on the table.
They were some “notes” belonging to Mu Wen and her roommate.
Mu Wen’s notes consisted of detailed sketches and reading notes.
Her roommate was probably a journalist, because her notes contained things like interview outlines.
Mu Wen’s reading notes were extremely neat.
Whenever something inspired her, she would write it down.
Page after page.
They were proof of the solid foundation she had built while growing up in a small city.
Her detailed sketches showed that she probably had never received professional training, but they were full of natural talent.
Her architectural drawings were beautiful.
Xie Chong had once imagined what it must have been like for Mu Wen to come all the way from a place called Yakeshi.
He imagined countless practice questions and assignments piled up behind her.
It must have been a difficult and exhausting road of study.
Now, seeing her notes made all of that real.
He couldn’t bring himself to be angry with Mu Wen.
Whatever her reason for getting close to him was, he simply couldn’t be angry with her.
Because when he carefully thought back on every meeting between them, it seemed that somehow, he had always been the one who made those meetings happen.
She had never taken the initiative.
If she had some hidden purpose, then he had been the one eagerly putting himself in front of her.
He had brought it upon himself.
Xie Chong sat in the small living room until four in the morning.
Mu Wen made soft, steady sounds in her sleep.
Only after he was certain that she would be fine did he stand up and leave her little home.
That night had felt like a battle.
He was completely exhausted.
When he got home, he pulled the blanket over his head and fell into a deep sleep.
At noon, Qian Song’s phone call woke him.
Qian Song was furious.
Xie Chong had promised to accompany him the night before to level up in their game, but he hadn’t logged in.
Qian Song asked,
“Did you make another friend?”
Xie Chong answered,
“I don’t have any other friends.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t have a girlfriend either.”
Mu Wen woke up around noon.
The moment she opened her eyes, she remembered what Lin Weisen had said.
Although she didn’t agree with everything he had said, she realized that this was simply how society worked.
Society was made up of countless relationships between people.
She couldn’t live completely outside those relationships.
After thinking about it, she decided to call several coworkers.
The first person she called was Lin Weisen.
“Master, you were right.”
“I’ve been completely focused on work and never thought about deliberately building good relationships with my coworkers. That was my mistake.”
“Master, let me treat everyone to dinner.”
Lin Weisen didn’t seem surprised by Mu Wen’s change.
She had always been smart.
She only needed someone to point things out to her, and she could quickly learn how to deal with people.
That was one of Mu Wen’s strengths.
“Sure. Let’s eat tonight. I’m taking the little one to the park this afternoon.”
“Okay!”
Mu Wen said happily,
“Tonight, let’s go to Golden Jaguar! I’ve never eaten there before!”
Lin Weisen hesitated.
Golden Jaguar was far too expensive for Mu Wen.
But she insisted.
“It’s fine. Let’s go to Golden Jaguar.”
She then called Little Gu and three other coworkers one after another.
As she made the calls, she felt as though her heart were bleeding.
But she immediately comforted herself.
Listen to people’s advice, and you’ll have an easier life.
If I get another client in the future and they don’t cause trouble for me, it’ll save me a lot of trouble.
She took cash from her wallet and counted it out.
“One hundred, two hundred, three hundred…”
The farther she counted, the slower her movements became.
Is this a kind of compromise?
She had no answer.
Even though she was confused, she still treated everyone to dinner at Golden Jaguar.
The buffet restaurant required a queue.
Mu Wen arrived early and told everyone else to go shopping first.
She would call them when it was almost their turn.
As she sat there waiting, she watched parents running around with their children.
Old friends chatted energetically.
Couples held hands while looking through magazines.
It was completely different from her life.
Her free time usually meant books from the Beijing Book Building and Guilin rice noodles on the way home.
She had probably never relaxed enough to enjoy an expensive dinner like this.
Mu Wen envied these people.
But she didn’t feel sorry for herself.
I’ll have this kind of life sooner or later.
During dinner, Mu Wen didn’t hide her appetite at all.
Since she had already spent the money, she was going to eat well.
She loved meat, so she went for lamb chops, steak, shrimp, and crab.
With all that food in front of her, she was already satisfied.
She ate happily.
She never mentioned the incident with Ms. Li.
She simply chatted casually with everyone.
Mu Wen had always been easygoing, so there was no awkwardness while eating and talking.
By the end of the meal, everyone was happy and completely full.
“Buffets are so good.”
Mu Wen said,
“I love buffets!”
Lin Weisen then said,
“Mu Wen has been with the company for a while now, but she still doesn’t know everyone well. Let’s look out for each other from now on.”
“We’re one team. If there’s money to be made, we make it together.”
Once Lin Weisen said that, the others stopped talking.
Mu Wen said,
“Thank you, Master.”
When they left the restaurant, everyone else had already gone.
Only Little Gu remained.
She asked Mu Wen,
“You spent so much treating everyone. Do you still have enough money for the rest of the month?”
“I do, I do.”
Mu Wen said,
“My monthly salary is over ten thousand yuan. I can still afford one meal. Don’t worry.”
Little Gu said, “Oh.”
Then she comforted Mu Wen.
“Mu Gong, don’t take what happened with Ms. Li to heart.”
“Honestly, very few people in the workplace are simple.”
“You need to be careful. Don’t believe everything anyone tells you.”
“You never know when two people might suddenly turn against each other.”
“I’ve been at this company for a long time. I know how ugly things can get when people are fighting for promotions, raises, and money.”
Mu Wen listened carefully.
Little Gu’s final words were,
“Even Engineer Lin… Whatever he says, you should…”
“I understand, Little Gu.”
Mu Wen interrupted her.
“Thank you.”
Little Gu let out a breath of relief.
“So don’t be unhappy, okay?”
“Forget those nasty things people said. Don’t let them get to you.”
“And…”
Little Gu bit her lip.
She seemed hesitant, but eventually made up her mind.
“I honestly hope you really are like they say.”
“That you have someone powerful backing you. Someone very powerful.”
“There’s nothing shameful about that.”
Little Gu continued,
“Having someone to support you is also a kind of ability.”
“People always ask why I put up with so much at home…”
“Do you know, Mu Gong? My life now is already much better than it was back home.”
“I still want it to be better, but this is as far as my abilities can take me right now.”
Mu Wen stepped forward and hugged Little Gu.
“I know you’re having a hard time.”
“I know you’re suffering.”
“But things will get better.”
“They will for all of us.”
Little Gu nodded.
She hugged Mu Wen back briefly before leaving.
Mu Wen finally escaped from the noisy atmosphere and let out a long breath.
She walked through the streets of late autumn.
She didn’t want to go home.
She didn’t know where to go.
Feeling lost, she simply sat down on a bench by the roadside.
Then she thought of Xie Chong.
She finally remembered Xie Chong.
Mu Wen remembered that she had kissed him.
She also remembered that he had taken her home.
Xie Chong was a very good person.
He always maintained a clear sense of boundaries with her and treated her politely.
He was probably like that with everyone.
She wanted to call him.
Then she remembered that she didn’t have his phone number anymore.
She thought about going to his home to find him, but she was afraid he would bring up what happened the night before.
Mu Wen had once believed that she was capable of doing everything well.
Now she felt that she was equally capable of ruining everything.
There was only one thought in her mind.
I want to see Xie Chong.
Even if he brought up what happened yesterday.
Even if he never wanted to speak to her again.
So what?
She still needed to see him.
Mu Wen got on a bus and went to Xie Chong’s home.
She stood outside his door, took a deep breath, and pressed the doorbell.
She heard movement inside.
Then Xie Chong opened the door.
“Yesterday… I… I’m sorry. I drank too much.”
Mu Wen finally understood why so many people used alcohol as an excuse for reckless behavior.
Alcohol really was a convenient excuse.
“What happened yesterday?”
Xie Chong asked.
“I kissed you…”
“Did you?”
Xie Chong said.
“You must be remembering it wrong. That never happened.”
He started to close the door.
But Mu Wen squeezed inside first.
She stood between him and the door and looked straight at him.
“Xie Chong, I know you don’t like me.”
“It’s okay.”
Mu Wen said,
“I like you.”
Her eyes met his bravely.
“Yes. I like you.”
Xie Chong couldn’t help frowning.
He sighed.
“Don’t say it, Mu Wen.”
“I know.”
“I know everything.”